


Bouncing Back

by Brumeier



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, First Meetings, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-30 15:26:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6430012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney wasn't thrilled about escorting Madison to Billy's Bounce Emporium, until he met the handsome dad who temporarily lost his son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bouncing Back

Rodney hated kids.

Well, not all kids obviously. His niece Madison was smart, well-mannered, and well-spoken. All very good qualities in a four year old, to be sure. It was everyone else’s kids he couldn’t stand, especially when they were running wild in Billy’s Bounce Emporium.

“Did you see me?”

“Sure did,” Rodney said without looking up from his tablet. He’d been asked that same question every time Madison climbed up a ladder or slid down a slide. There wasn’t much variety in her repertoire.

Jeannie had gotten sneaky since becoming a mother, always springing these horrible uncle-niece activities on Rodney at the last minute. There was no way he’d have willingly agreed to take Madison to the bouncier version of Chuck-E-Cheese, no matter how much Jeannie thought he needed to get out and meet new people.

“Uncle Mer, watch!”

Rodney looked up from the engine schematics he was reviewing to watch Madison, curly ponytail swinging, scramble up an inflatable ladder like a monkey.

“Very athletic,” he called back to her. Maybe he should talk to Jeannie about her daughter’s constant need for validation.

When Madison reappeared at the bottom of the slide she wasn’t alone. There was a pint-sized, dark-haired boy clinging to her hand, fat tears rolling down his face.

“Uncle Mer, Jamey lost his dad.” Two pairs of eyes looked up at him, one blue and one brown. “You fix it.”

Rodney appreciated the faith Madison had in him, even as he mentally cursed the poor parenting skills of the boy’s father.

“Let’s go to the front desk.”

He slid the tablet into his messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder. Madison maneuvered Jamey so that he was between them, holding both their hands. Rodney refrained from shuddering (germs!) and attempted to find his way through the maze of bounce houses, inflatable obstacle courses, and hordes of shrieking children.

Turns out he didn’t need to go all that far.

“Jamey!” A man was shouting, frantic and pale as he scanned the crowd of children. Even if he hadn’t said his son’s name Rodney would’ve known he was the dad just from the striking physical resemblance.

“Hey!” Rodney called out. He dropped Madison’s hand to snap his fingers at the dad. “You! Over here!”

“See?” Madison said a bit too smugly. “Told you he’d fix it.”

The man came hurrying over and scooped up his son, hugging him tight. “Don’t you _ever_ do that again! You had me worried, buddy.”

Now that his personal crisis had been averted, Jamey was all smiles. “Play, Daddy. Wanna play.”

Rodney took pity on the guy, who was obviously frazzled and ready to call it a day. “Madison, take your friend in the castle over there. Okay?” To the dad he added, “There’s only one way in or out.”

The guy looked reluctant but Jamey was squirming and so he set the little boy back down and watched him run off hand-in-hand with Madison.

“Thanks,” the guy said. He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, and there was no reason that – or the crazy cowlicks he was sporting – should look so endearing.

Rodney gestured to a nearby bench and they sat down, the guy’s eyes glued to the castle. The kids could be glimpsed behind the netting, bouncing around like maniacs. “I’m Rodney, by the way. Rodney McKay.”

“Thanks, Rodney. For helping Jamey out.” The guy held out his hand. “John Sheppard.”

He had a nice, firm grip, and Rodney lamented the fact that such an attractive man was very probably married. Wasn’t that always his luck?

“You should thank my niece. She took charge of the whole situation.” Bossy little thing, just like her mother.

“I will.” John let out a breath and relaxed a little. “It’d be the icing on the cake for something to happen during my visitation weekend.”

Rodney perked up at that. Visitation implied divorce and closer inspection showed a bare ring finger on John’s left hand. “How often do you have him?”

“One weekend a month. Not enough.” John stretched out his long legs. “How about you? Any kids of your own?”

“I don’t like kids,” Rodney replied before he could stop himself. John raised an eyebrow. “Forget I said that. They’re not all bad. I’m sure yours is great.”

“He’s an incredible escape artist,” John said with a chuckle. “I swear I had my back turned for a second. I think he followed a group of kids from one jumpy thing to another.”

It would certainly be easy to do. Rodney had counted three birthday parties in addition to the gaggle of kids just there to burn off some energy for an hour or two.

“Daddy!” Both kids came on the run, not looking the slightest bit winded. “Play ball?”

“Can I teach him Skee Ball, Uncle Mer?” Madison asked. “Can I?”

Rodney looked at John, who shrugged and nodded. Madison didn’t even wait for verbal confirmation, just grabbed Jamey’s hand and dragged him off to the arcade.

“She’s pretty forceful,” John remarked as they trailed along after the kids.

“Bossy is the word I’d use,” Rodney replied. He hit up the token machine at the entryway to the arcade and doled out some shiny silver coins emblazoned with Billy Beaver, the nonsensical mascot of the Emporium.

“You can get the next round,” Rodney told John when the other man looked ready to protest.

It turned out Madison had more enthusiasm than skill when it came to Skee Ball. Jamey, on the other hand, was a natural and soon racked up an impressive amount of tickets.

“Here, like this.” Rodney tried to explain rates of velocity and inclines, but his niece just scowled at him. 

“No science! Mommy said! Just kid fun!”

John, at least, looked impressed. “You sound like you know what you’re doing.”

“I’m a physicist.” Rodney fed two tokens into the machine and waited for the orange balls to clack into place. It was possible he was showing off just a little, getting all eight balls into the hundred point ring.

“Wow. Good aim.”

Rodney handed John some tokens and watched as he consistently got the ball in either the forty or fifty point rings.

“Not so bad yourself.” He certainly wasn’t hard on the eyes, all lean muscle packed into black jeans and a snug navy blue t-shirt.

Rodney gave his tickets to Madison. The kids played a few more games – Madison pulled a stuffed frog out of the claw machine and Jamey proved proficient at Whack-A-Mole – and then it was time to redeem the tickets.

“This plastic crap is beyond useless,” Rodney muttered, looking at the offerings behind the glass. A simple, mid-sized ball cost almost three hundred tickets; it would be easier to just buy it.

Madison and Jamey had their tickets counted, spending far too long contemplating their choices. Madison ended up with generic pink Silly Putty, a rubber bracelet, and two tiny plastic beavers. Jamey carefully chose four molded plastic Army men.

“Well, that was certainly worth the price of admission,” Rodney grumbled.

The next item on the agenda was lunch, and he couldn’t believe the prices they were charging for simple items like pizza slices and hot dogs. What a rip-off.

“You know,” John said. “I was planning on taking Jamey to the McDonald’s down the street. You’re welcome to join us.”

"Please?” Madison batted her eyes at him. “Can we go? Pretty please?”

“Don’t beg. It’s unseemly.” Rodney turned to John. “Are you sure? I don’t want to horn in on your weekend.”

“It’s fine. Honestly.”

John seemed sincere enough, so Rodney agreed. He got Madison bundled back into her booster seat in Jeannie’s blue Prius – he didn’t want sticky kid hands all over his own upholstery – and they followed John to the McDonald’s. John, of course, drove a big black pickup.

The McDonald’s turned out to be one of those with the play area inside, which meant still more screaming children. Madison wolfed down her chicken nuggets (what Jeannie didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her) in record time, but Jamey didn’t rush, eating with the deliberate slowness of a kid whose mother was probably afraid he’d choke to death and told him so. Rodney’d had a courtesy aunt like that when he was growing up.

“Go play?” Jamey asked John when he’d finished.

John wiped his son’s face with a napkin. “Don’t climb too high, okay?”

Jamey nodded solemnly, and then he tore after Madison.

“How old is he?” Rodney asked.

“Three and a half.” John collected up all the empty wrappers and containers, and tossed them on the tray. “Growing like a weed.”

Rodney didn’t comment on the fact that Madison clearly had more highly developed language skills, and was probably a lot smarter despite her father’s liberal arts gene contribution. He knew parents were touchy about that kind of thing.

“So, do you teach at the university?” John asked. He propped his feet up on Jamey’s chair and kept watch on the play area.

“Teach a bunch of students who care more about tweeting than understanding the way the universe works? I’d have to be certifiably insane.” Rodney didn’t bother to mention that he’d taught a Freshman-level Physics class several years ago, filling in for the regular professor who’d gotten ill, and had never been asked back. Ingrates, all of them. 

John seemed to find that funny, if the bizarre donkey noise coming out of him was indeed laughter.

"I'll have you know I’m a legitimate genius,” Rodney said defensively. “I run my own research and development lab, and we do a lot of contracting out for government projects.”

That seemed to get John’s attention. He turned to look at Rodney, both eyebrows raised. “Wait, you’re _that_ McKay?”

“Of course I am,” Rodney boasted. “Uh…are we thinking of the same me?”

John dropped his feet back on the floor and turned so he was fully facing Rodney. “Are you the Dr. McKay that runs Atlantis Innovations? The one that designed the R-500 helo?”

“Oh. Well then, yes. That’s me.”

Rodney already thought John was attractive, but then his whole face lit up like a Christmas tree and that determination had to be revised. John was flat-out gorgeous, and Rodney wished they were somewhere with less kids and better ambiance, because he’d totally have made a move right then and there.

“I’m a test pilot. I got to fly that baby before anyone else. You did a beautiful job.”

It was possible that Rodney blushed, just a little. Luckily a distraction arrived. Jamey came running over, wordlessly wailing and cupping his elbow.

“What happened, buddy?” John scooped him up and settled the little boy in his lap. “Did you hit your elbow?”

Jamey nodded, his face covered in a mixture of tears and snot that made Rodney glad he was done eating. Madison came skipping over moments later.

“It’s okay, Uncle Mer. I fixed it.”

“Fixed what?” But now Rodney could hear someone else’s kid crying, and he looked at his niece with narrowed eyes. “What did you do?”

“This girl pushed Jamey. I punched her.”

John looked at Madison over the top of Jamey’s head, entirely too amused.

“Maybe we should go,” Rodney suggested. He picked up the tray and carried it over to the garbage receptacle. John followed, carrying a more subdued and sniffling Jamey, but their quick escape was thwarted by an angry mother.

“Excuse me!”

“That’s her,” Madison said helpfully, pointing to the girl with the messy red pigtails that was clinging to the woman’s hand.

“Your daughter hit my daughter!”

“Just to clarify,” Rodney said. “She’s my niece. And while I don’t condone physical violence, your daughter pushed my friend’s son, who is clearly much younger. He could have shattered his elbow, and I can assure you if that had happened you’d have found yourself on the wrong side of the table from my lawyer. Let’s go, John.”

Rodney steered Madison out of the door and back to the car. John and Jamey joined them.

“You two are a little scary,” John said.

“You should meet my sister,” Rodney replied. Jeannie would have his hide if she found out Madison had hit someone. Clearly some form of bribery would be called for.

“I guess we should head home.” Maybe it was Rodney’s wishful thinking, but John didn’t sound too happy at the prospect of parting company.

“Us, too.” Rodney unlocked the car and opened the door so Madison could climb in.

“You know, I’d like to talk to you some more about the R-500.”

Maybe it _wasn’t_ wishful thinking. “Oh. Yeah, that would be…um. Let me give you my number.”

John shifted Jamey to his other hip and pulled out his phone. They exchanged numbers, and then John had to crouch down next to the car so Jamey could say goodbye to Madison.

“It was nice meeting you,” John said. “I’ll be in touch.”

Rodney watched him go, which was almost as nice as seeing him from the front. He’d heard of people using kids to pick up dates, but it had never happened to him before. Maybe there was something to be said for uncle-niece bonding days after all.

He didn’t really expect to hear back from John, not after a random encounter at a kid’s venue. But two days later Rodney got a text message.

_Lunch at Marcello’s? No skee ball, but less kids._

This was followed by several winking emojis. Rodney didn’t hesitate to send a message back, agreeing to what he hoped was an actual date.

And to think he owed it all to Billy’s Bounce Emporium.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** So, I got the idea for this fic when I was visiting my dad down in North Carolina. We took the kids to Monkey Joe’s, which is full of bouncy things and climby things and has skee ball. It was crazy, and I thought it would be an interesting place for John and Rodney to meet. Took me a year to figure out the second half of this story, but today it just kind of popped into my head and I was able to finish it.


End file.
